Image: Dylan Wearing
The three-day trial of Siyabonga Sloti, 29, a Scenery Park sedan (iphela) taxi driver accused of raping and robbing a young Zwelitsha woman passenger who had come to East London for a job interview in July 2016, was yesterday cut short and postponed to July after the complainant failed to pitch up in court.
The 26-year-old complainant, who cannot be named as it is a sexual offence case, was yesterday expected to relive the traumatic day by giving testimony at the start of Sloti’s trial in the East London regional court.
The trial was set to end tomorrow, but state prosecutor Thando Feni asked regional court magistrate Deon Rossouw to postpone it, because the complainant had a family emergency to attend to in Lusikisiki.
Yesterday Feni did not want to commence with the trial in her absence, but Rossouw ruled that it should start and that the two state witnesses who were already in court should testify.
Sloti is charged with rape and robbery after he allegedly stole the woman’s phone and money, while his co-accused, Magama Tsotsi, 40, faces a charge of robbery for his alleged involvement in stealing her money and cellphone.
It is the state’s case that the two men picked the woman up on the morning of July 29 2016 in East London while she was on her way to King William’s Town.
The state believes the two men, in a white Toyota Conquest, diverted from the route to KWT and took her to a bushy area in Wilsonia where they raped and robbed her of her belongings.
The state further alleges that Tsotsi did not partake in the rape incident, but was instrumental in the robbery.
Both men, who have been in custody since the incident, yesterday pleaded not guilty to the charges.
First on the witness stand yesterday was Thulani Gqwetha, a sedan taxi driver who had lent Sloti the vehicle he used on the day in question.
Gqwetha told the court that he loaned Sloti the vehicle when he told him that morning that he needed to buy food for his child in town.
He said he knew both of the accused men as they were from the same area in Scenery Park and that both had romantic relationships with his two sisters.
Gqwetha said it was not the first time he had loaned Sloti his vehicle.
“He took the vehicle at around 9 in the morning and only brought it back just after 1pm. The following day, while I was about to buy a windscreen at West Bank, I was approached by police who cuffed me and arrested me, accusing me of raping a woman the previous day. When I told them I never raped any woman, they asked me who was driving my taxi the previous morning, and I informed them that I had lent it to Siya [Sloti],” he told the court.
The vehicle’s owner, Mncedi Xatule also testified yesterday.
Defence attorney Phathekile Mema said his client would deny ever borrowing a car from Gqwetha on the day, saying his client owns “two or three cars of his own”.
Rossouw postponed the trial to July 12 and 13.
l Sloti is set to face another trial later this year after he was linked through his DNA to four other incidents of rape and robbery of passengers in Berlin, Duncan Village and Scenery Park between 2015 and 2016. — asandan@dispatch.co.za